Like
millions of Americans, Delaware Republican Senate
nominee
Christine O'Donnell has had trouble covering her
mortgage and other bills over the years. Her opponents
consider this a scandal of disqualifying proportions.
But there's a bigger disgrace: It's all the
sanctimonious Democrats who have exploited their
entrenched political incumbency to pay for multiple
manses and vacation homes—while posing as
vox populi.

Former senior senator from Delaware
and current Vice President Joe Biden has a custom-built
house in Delaware's ritziest Chateau Country
neighborhood. It is now worth at least $2.5 million and
is the Bidens' most valuable asset. Biden tapped
campaign funds to pay for his compound's lawn needs. He
secured the new estate with the help of a corporate
executive who worked for Biden's top campaign donor,
credit card giant MBNA.

In 1996, Biden sold his previous
mansion to MBNA Vice Chairman John Cochran. The asking
price was $1.2 million. Cochran forked over the full
sum. Biden then paid $350,000 in cash to real estate
developer Keith Stoltz for a 4.2-acre lakefront lot.
Stoltz had paid that same amount five years earlier for
the undeveloped property.

Stoltz told the
Wilmington News
Journal that
"the residential
real estate market was soft" at the time he sold the
land to Biden. But
"soft" for
whom? Stoltz was a well-off businessman who didn't
appear to be in such dire financial straits that he
needed to unload the property quickly in a weak market.

Reporter Byron York looked at
comparable properties in Biden's neighborhood
and found three cases where homes in the area went
"for a good deal less than their appraised value. In comparison, it
appears Cochran simply paid Biden's full asking price."

Biden's office denied any
sweetheart deals took place, but York noted that it
appeared MBNA indirectly helped Cochran buy the Biden
house through six-figure executive compensation funds
listed as moving expenses and losses suffered on the
sale of his previous home.

To be clear, no laws were broken.
These arrangements were simply a continuation of Biden's
decades-long, Beltway business-as-usual relationships
with a deep-pocketed corporate benefactor—which, by the
way, later hired his son. Nice
nepotism,
if you can get it.

North Dakota Democrat Sen. Kent
Conrad and Connecticut Democrat Sen. Chris Dodd made
cozy arrangements with subprime sleaze lender
Countrywide. Portfolio.com
reported that Conrad
"borrowed $1.07
million in 2004 to refinance his vacation home with a
balcony and wraparound porch in Bethany Beach, Del., a
block from the ocean."

Senate Banking Chair Dodd received
two discounted loans in 2003 through Countrywide's VIP
program. He borrowed $506,000 to refinance his elite
townhouse in Washington, D.C., and $275,042 to refinance
a home in East Haddam, Conn. Countrywide helpfully
waived fractions of points on the loans. The lower
interest rates could have saved Dodd a combined $75,000
during the life of the 30-year loans.

Dodd had known about the
preferential treatment on his loans since 2003, yet
continued to deny that he was treated like a VIP,
refused to acknowledge wrongdoing and encouraged
government-sponsored mortgage enterprises Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac to invest in Countrywide's risky loans.

Not content with two shady home
deals, Dodd got in on a real estate scheme for an Irish
cottage and nearly 10 acres of land with William
Kessinger, a businessman tied to his close friend,
insider trader Edward R. Downe Jr.

Downe had pleaded guilty to tax and
securities law violations and was banned for life from
the business. In 2001, Dodd helped Downe obtain one of
the treasured presidential pardons on Bill Clinton's
last day in office. A year after that, as Irish real
estate prices went through the roof, Dodd purchased
Kessinger's share of the estate at a discount. He failed
to include the obvious quid-pro-quo gift on Senate
disclosure forms: Help a crooked friend, reap a cut-rate
real estate deal.

Prominent members of Team Obama
benefited from similar special home deals. Politico.com
noted that the Clintons secured a $1.35 million loan
from Democrat pal and fundraiser Terry McAuliffe for
their New York estate; Obama special envoy Richard
Holbrooke snagged a sweetheart loan to refinance his
Telluride, Colo., ski vacation home from the Countrywide
VIP program; and Obama's close confidante and erstwhile
vice presidential search committee panelist Jim Johnson
accepted more than $7 million in below-market-rate loans
from Countrywide.

Then there's President
Barack Obama's own $1.7 million Chicago manse—which
was financed with a discounted mortgage from Northern
Trust and infamously included a shady land swap with
convicted felon donor/developer
Tony
Rezko. A report released by the Federal Election
Commission in February 2009 underscored that the Obamas
received reduced loan rates (saving $300 a month, or
$108,000 over the life of a 30-year loan) because of
their high-profile positions.

Northern Trust offered the super
jumbo loan to the Obamas in anticipation of entering
"long-term
financial relationships" with the successful
couple. The FEC refused to call the Obamas' mortgage
deal an illegal corporate contribution, but it was an
obvious act of favor-trading. Northern Trust employees
had contributed $71,000 to Obama since 1990.

GOP candidates like Christine O'Donnell, who have
weathered personal financial troubles, have a lot more
in common with the 14 million Americans underwater on
their mortgages than these privileged Beltway boys.
Perhaps fat-cat Democrats in crony-funded houses should
put down their stones.